There is a couple of good articles on nef about the zero hours contracts in the UK.
A succinct paragraph is: “Even if the Government successfully prepares people to enter employment, it is doing nothing to make sure that employment actually improves people’s livelihoods or well-being. You can’t make work pay simply by reducing benefits and sanctioning claimants for failing to turn up to jobs-training workshops.”
I would say – Paula Bennett take note, but she doesn’t seem to be a rational thinker.
Welfare cuts that are meant to get the jobless back to work are driving down the living standards of hundreds of thousands of people who are in no position to find a job, an assessment of the Coalition’s welfare reforms says today.
Researchers, who have used data to forecast what will happen to the 1.18 million households where no one works, have calculated that 155,000 (roughly one in eight) can mitigate the effect of the cuts by finding work near their home, while another 115,000 will have the opportunity to move to more affordable housing. The rest – more than three-quarters of the total – will simply see their incomes drop, according to an independent study carried out for the Local Government Association by the Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion.
Bubble bubble gulp gulp…..its so great being popular, more popular than spies us snapper are…swish swish….whats that????? a bottom feeder, yuck, lower than shark shit…must be a prime minister. Pollution, pollution, swim away………
Last week I posted a wee comment about a personal hero who recently passed away. He was one of NZ’s best sportsmen ever in his chosen field and he also did significant things for manwomankind. This post elicited a reply from karol around middle new Zealand values and how wrong they were. To karol’s eyes this highlighted flaws within the average kiwi and what they consider to be worthy. To my eyes karol’s response highlighted the arrogance of the far left and the contempt for “middle” New Zealand which its inhabitants so often show (just like the pricks on the far right – just a different form). The sneering so often just below the surface around here towards middle nz broke the surface. The thread is here http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-08082013/#comment-676953
When is a person a hero? How many heroes can there be? Is it subjective or objective? And equally importantly, why the fuck is there so much sneering by the left and far left at “middle” New Zealand? Contempt for a group of people is often described as bigotry. In addition, this sneering robs the left of a large swathe of potential voters as they turn away from such arrogance (read, ignorance)……….
If Heroism is the willingness to risk one’s self to protect others, then I would agree that Vinton-Boot had performed at least one heroic act:
“When he was 21, he was part of a daring rescue in which he, his younger brother and a friend swam 300m out to sea in a strong rip to save a drowning man.
The trio were alerted to the Asian tourist’s plight by one of his relatives and dived into the Christchurch surf immediately to spend 30 minutes cradling the semi-conscious man back to shore. ”
Lots of people (myself amongst them) see sports as a colossal distraction from important things – a contempt for sporting news is not necessarily contempt for middle NZ (who might see politics or art as a distraction from sport). Going from the Stuff acticles you link to; without further biographical details, I couldn’t say that Byrne had shown any degree of Heroism. He might have also been a surf-life saver, or rescued comrades under fire while in the RNZAF which might qualify him for the title, but that was not mentioned there.
Why is “great surfer” not enough of an accolade in Byrne’s case? Using the tag of “Hero” in this instance would seem to diminish the term when applied to others (such as Vinton-Boot).
“The hero piece was clearly my opinion. Heroism is, again if you think about it, subjective. ”
“… you and Karol save hero status for only the very most exceptional of people.”
The comment above looks like you are disagreeing with yourself on both those statements, and want to engage with others whose ideas of heroism align with yours, so you can say “See. Heroism is definitive – and I nailed it!”
” equally importantly, why the fuck is there so much sneering by the left and far left at “middle” New Zealand” Does it not occur to you that this is a snide comment in itself?
I just think we decide for ourselves who our personal heroes are. If your personal values include sporting achievements – then you will be admiring of those who achieve in that field. Not for me, BTW, although Sir Ed does spring to mind – not because of knocking the bugger off, but for his refusal to state whether he or Tenzing reached the summit first, by refusing to using his fame for advertising, for his life-time commitment to Nepal and for his comments regarding leaving a climber to die on the path to the summit.
just cos someone wants your vote doesn’t mean they have to like you eh….I think it illustrates a huge disconnect….I’m pretty sure I’ve even seen a suggestion that Grant Robertson could lead a Labour party to victory….. maybe in Wellington, but I’m not 100% sure.
We need a lot more heroes of all the different kinds there could be.
Grant Robertson is ineligible to be the Leader: he was beaten by the Greens and the Nats for party vote in Central. The performance at the last election by Labour in the wellington hutt region was very worrying.
@VTO. Just read the thread from last week and fully understand your question about the sneering Left. Bored went AWOL because of this unthinking “correctness”, Ennui is still bored with it. There is a lot of unthinking dogma around here and it reflects in how the electorate view large chunks of the “Left”.
Yesterday Sanctuary gave us a view of the Left that is uncomfortably close to the mark, even if I did not give it total credence. http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-12082013/#comment-678454 Parts of his message were rightly panned, but the core accusation drew so little response. Sad, because unless we examine our dark corners we will remain undesirable and un-electable.
The trait of being triumphantly superior over others with regards supposed intelligence is one piece of shit many of the left most definately need to dump.
Another risible aspect of the left is the widespread inability to recognise the political/cultural roots of some left thoughts/beliefs/habits…so for example, the habit to smooth over of the authoritarian past, meaning it gets preserved in the present and projected into the future (both by left cultists and social democrats) and who then, inevitably by dint of excusing and perpetuating past habits, cut the legs off any chance there may be of developing a society that embraces leftist values.
But then, from my (allegedly) hard left perspective, I would say that – wouldn’t I? 😉
Nicely put Bill: I sort of reside on the “hard left”. One of the salutary lessons I learnt as a (former) Marxist is that a prescribed ideology that has as a core belief its’ own undeniable “truth” is a cop out for non thinkers. Therein lies no wriggle room nor forgiveness. No shades of grey. In short entrenched materialist ideologies like Marxism, Neo Liberalism, etc lack humanity, so I dropped them.
You’re giving Marxism too hard a time, and too little credit.
Marxism did something that almost no other political-economic philosophy did at the time: it gave an insightful, yet brutal, critique of capitalism as a system, and as capitalism as the basis of a society. It pointed out what is obvious to every serious Lefty today: that in a capitalist system it is those people who own the assets and the capital who make out like bandits, and those people who only have their labour, who get fucked.
Do you know why so many Labour MPs sound completely wishy-washy about the problems in our society, despite their good intentions?
Because even as they go on the attack over an important issue like say…child poverty…hardly any of them go on to recognise and attack the actual neoliberal machinery which is behind the problem. So we get “solutions” like…a Ministry for Children, more healthcare checks, food in schools, transfer payments for families with kids, and meanwhile…the neoliberal machinery just keeps rumbling on in the background.
CV, I still think some of the analysis by Marx such as relationship to production, surplus value, capital accumulation etc is incredibly valuable.
Where I diverge from Marx is that he, like all of Voltaires children is a rationalist who uses logical constructs to prove his point…which in the example of his historic dialectic is obviously wrong. The neo libs, leftist libertarians etc do much the same…its a one trick pony. If you begin an argument at a set point (of your precise choosing) you can logically prove anything…until you get into the real world. There you meet Ennuis First Law…”if theory and reality by some random chance ever meet they are already probably divergent”.
Our leftist parliamentarians…how many of them have ever actually pulled the levers of the neo lib machinery? Or ever been any closer than taking a cheque to keep quiet about the realities? Their role is the application of band aids, not the removal of the knife.
same applies to the general analysis of the implications of greater surveillance by the state and corporates; analysis not going much deeper than each individual’s assessment of their own current data histories and context. Guess they’ll learn in time with the cadence.
It just looks to me like those who question the dominance of values skewed towards the white male establishment are dismissed as “hard left” and “arrogant” and “sneering”?
Seems to me a lot of pots and kettles.
What exactly is “hard left” about, for instance, the Claudia Bell quotes above?
The morale of a people is heavily affected by their heroes, whether they be quiet unassuming ones recognised only in a family, neighbourhood or community, and the ones seen leading the story of the 6pm news.
I’m really surprised that feminism doesn’t recognise any heroes amongst its own ranks.
It just looks to me like those who question the dominance of values skewed towards the white male establishment
I understand that black South Africans and indigenous Burmese have their own local home-grown political heroes too.
In which case K should the “hard left” not be allowed to include white male values? Are we to be categorised, condemned and thrown into the outer darkness as beyond redemption?
It may be a little subtle but once on this blog I was “advised” (upon point of excommunication) to read and adhere to Feminism 101…..I did. I also reread Alice in Wonderland, which made perfect sense. It clearly stated that “nothing is as it seems”. Maybe we would all do better to only write when under the influence of vast quantities of lordinum.
In which case K should the “hard left” not be allowed to include white male values? Are we to be categorised, condemned and thrown into the outer darkness as beyond redemption?
Ennui, I’m not sure how this relates to my comments critical of sports focused heroes & the dominant culture in NZ? Yes I did say something about such dominant values being skewed towards the white male establishment.
You “far left” point doesn’t seem to relate to anything I have said on this issue.
For being critical of the individualistic heroic man vs wild (“man alone”) ethos, I have been personally attacked as being a “bigot”, “arrogant”, “far left” and dismissive of “middle NZ”
But I said nothing about white male* values being included or excluded from the “hard left” (or that it was only embraced by white males*) – and indeed, I have question being called “far left” – a term often used in a very subjective way – see for instance the way John Key calling anyone critical of his pro-corporate and wealthy elite agenda as “far left”. I have never considered myself to be hard of far left.
It was vto who started saying my criticism of the white male values are “far left” – I have never owned that.
* I should have said traditional white masculine values – it’s about cultural values not biological sex.
Interesting, vto, that the examples you give, and that are particularly promoted by the MSM, are male sportsmen in the old man vs wild narrative – and individualistic.
They did carry out very commendable actions at risk to themselves. Many other people, in diverse (non-sporting) fields, get far less attention for their heroic actions. Or if they do get attention, like Jon Stephenson, they tend to be called something other than heroes.
The women protesting at the removals of people from Glen Innes state houses, are carrying out on-going heroic acts, with little media spotlight, and, when they are mention, the hero word is not used.
When I was growing up I tended to admire individuals – I’m not sure I would have used the “hero” word. But they were people who i thought did noble and worthy things in their lives:
“Far left”? Really? That’s not how I think of myself. it sounds like a very subjective term. What exactly does that mean? Ditto “Middle New Zealand”? Is it like Brash’s “mainstream New Zealand”? Is any challenge to the NZ status quo deemed contemptuous of “middle New Zealand?
Agree with you on the use of the word “Hero”. Never feel comfortable using it myself – reminds me of Greek mythology and the unquestioning subservience of mere mortals to the Gods…
Don’t have the same disquiet referring to heroic acts though, – perhaps, because I’m comfortable with the idea that people are made up of many parts – and sometimes one could be honorable, brave and inspiring and at other times petty, dishonest and shrill.
After months on TradeMe’s saved searches I finally managed to buy a copy of Claudia Bell’s – Inventing New Zealand – everyday myths of pakeha identity. I borrowed it from Auckland libraries a few months ago, and felt like it was a book written straight out of my head. But of course – with better sentence structure and form.
I understand Paul Moon has released something similar, but from the excerpts I’ve read, seems fairly lightweight.
A couple of excerpts: The strongest place in public representations of New Zealand way of life is claimed by the events, celebrations, lifestyle and material consumption of the more advantaged group. Just as the economic and political interests of the most powerful in the Pakeha group are manipulated into prominence and maintained there, so does this same group have most access to constructing national imagery. This is available because of the social status and political power of Pakeha: symbols of Pakeha culture are the dominant icons for national identity. The loudest voice proclaiming identity is the one that persuades the nation. Television has the loudest voice of all.”
Because the book was published in 1996, she gives the example of the America’s Cup: A brilliant illustration of this was the America’s Cup welcome-home parade up Queen Street, Auckland in May, 1995, sponsored by TV One.
The America’s Cup was shown on every news broadcast, so this event looked like a very important part of national culture. This occurred through negotiation by several agencies: the sponsors, the event organisers, the decision-makers in the media (who made what mileage they could out of the event by being ‘good sports’ and stating ‘how good this is for the country’), and the audience, who gradually ‘learned’ to be interested.
…Winning the cup was claimed by television as being a win for the nation as a whole: ‘we’ salute ‘our’ heroes; ‘we’ won the cup! – an especially delicious win, given the far greater resource power of the opposition.
…It might seem a bit unlikely to match an expensive sport like yachting to the tradition of achievement of ordinary New Zealanders. The nature of the race – offshore, far away, out of sight – is such that without television it was not and could not be a spectator sport. Ordinary New Zealanders could not go along for a few hours and watch and cheer. An event thousands of kilometres away raced by an exclusive group of white male professionals with access to a vast amount of money was seen as a major milestone in national history. Converted from offshore race to media spectacle, it allowed ‘everyone’ in the nation to participate.
The America’s Cup win conveniently distracted us from more contentious events occurring at the same time, that ‘we’ would not want to be taken as ‘representative’ of ‘us’. Race relations issues were also in the news that week, with Maori activist Mike Smith taking a chainsaw to the iconic pine tree on One Tree Hill, the Motua Gardens demonstration in Wanganui, and two Members of Parliament playing racist games on a daytime radio talk show. Politicians and media people do not want these latter occurrences to be seen as ‘representative’ events. The ‘Welcome Home’ America’s Cup parades could be described a therapeutic symbolic displays of nationalism. Appropriately fostered, patriotic feelings cut across class groups, and affect women and men, adults and children, alike. With all eyes on the screen, a nation could feel united.”
Fast forward to 2013… seems not a lot has changed.
Molly, you might have mentioned the original Hero. She (yes Hero was a female) lit a candle for her lover Leander who would swim the Hellespont for her embrace. One stormy night the candle blew out, Leander lost his way and drowned, and Hero in a fit of grief threw herself from a cliff to join her lover in death. make of it what you will.
… don’t gamble your life on someone else’s swimming prowess….
…expect your lover to own his own compass…
…candles may be environmentally friendlier, but LEDs rule…
…forget about sex on a stormy night, unless you live on the same peninsula…
I consider John Minto a hero, far more than someone who takes personal risks in the interests of following their recreational pursuits. Assange has some heroic qualities. A woman who works 2 or 3 jobs to feed and clothe her kids is a heroine. If that makes me a sneering far lefty in your cataloguing system, too bloody bad.
Thanks to all the posters above for your feedback. Unfortunately circumstances intervened yesterday short-circuiting intended conversations…
It seems there are several related tangents. Firstly, that sport is put on a pedestal that is above its reasonable position and I agree that is the case. It is interesting that nobody put up anything about how sports arrived at that place, how sport developed as not just recreation but a form of practice for running down the wounded impala, or cutting the most lumber in a day. From a time when physical prowess had a direct and immediate impact on provision for the family. This was lost just a few generations ago and so of course such a central feature of life for milleniums doesn’t change overnight.
And heroism is certainly subjective. Imo heroism does not arise solely because of sporting success (in these particular cases), it arises due to more humane acts – putting ones life at risk, dedicating ones life to good causes, even bad causes have their heroes though too. It arises in all sorts of spheres – the local nurse, the ed Hilary, the forgotten foster parents. We all know this I think. Heroic acts can be small and forgotten the next day – they can be large and remembered for a lifetime and beyond.
Then of course the sneering. That subject will most definitely arise again, most probably by way of example when some stupid person stereotypes all middle nz as having some equal set of values, unable to realise that you cannot judge a driver by their vehicle. Good bit of sneering going on in a mini-thread just below about stupid people though.
An article in Friday’s Independent warns that world wide there has been an increasing over-investment in farming, making agriculture particularly vulnerable to environmental disasters.
The threat posed to agriculture by environmental hazards such as climate change and water scarcity is now so great that it could wipe as much as £5 trillion off the value of the world’s farm land, equipment and stock in any one year, a heavyweight study is warning.
Agriculture in the UK and worldwide is under huge financial and physical stress. A surge of investment on the back of a boom in the global food commodities market meets an increasingly precarious physical environment for farming – creating a dangerous asset bubble that threatens to burst, according to the Oxford University research.
Suspected! 15 Quadrillion becquerels of radioactive material in the trench that TEPCO is now admitting water is leaking from into the groundwater. Muwahahahaha, but hey I’m just the alarmist!
About 0.0002. (I think I have the right number of zeroes)
This is based on the assumption that the people who work for Google, and are therefore in the Googleplex which is the name of their headquarters, are worth about $200 billion between them.
It also uses the American definition of quadrillion which is 10 to the power of 15.
There, wasn’t that something you were just dying to know?
A lot. In fact it is theorised that if you had fine dust particles each a micron in size you could fit approx a googol of them in the volume of the universe. Easy to write out though, just 1 with a hundred zeroes.
A googolplex however would require a different mindset to quantify. Each of those dust particles would carry a zero to write it out in full. Now consider a “googolplexian” – a 1 with a googolplex of zeroes after it. Possibly the largest number with a name, although I can’t determine if Graham’s number is larger. Cerebral torture trying to work it out.
Reporter says they are doing a piece on the GCSB bill on Campbell Live…he doesn’t answer her question(s), but says that they would get more viewers if they did a piece on the snapper quota instead. Whatever the reporter says he comes back to the snapper….because “people fish”.
We New Zealanders are one of the dullest, most stupidly conservative, most unenterprising races on this planet. By a long course of self-hypnotism extending over several decades we have persuaded ourselves of the opposite – that we are bold, enterprising, progressive, intelligent people, unhampered by the shackles of the past. The sooner we realise what damned nonsense this is, the better for us.
Our national vice is stupidity. It is not that, individually, we are more stupid than other people. The trouble is that we have such a solid respect for stupidity. The result is that it pervades every department of our life, and chokes all growth.
It is still possible for the industrial workers and the working farmers, who form the core of the population, to let themselves be persuaded to support the most outrageous commercial and political rackets, of which they are the willing victims, and to defend them as if they were the pillars of human freedom. (Even dogs don’t undertake benevolent work on behalf of fleas).
Karol – “stupid” people, exist at all/every level of so called society, however depending on the definition of “stupid”, the parameters which is exits in, will depend on the message attempting to conveyed.
In this instance, I would expect the parameteres are all encompassing, because “stupid”, is everywhere, all with contributing levels of negative influence!
I’m somewhat more judgemental of judgemental people myself.
Comes of many long hours moderating and deciding that there is only one effective way to deal with such people. That is to hold an high-handed and quite extremist mirror to their own extremist behaviour. In other words if they are arrogant, then be even more arrogant to them. If they are boring pedants, then be a even more effective pedant commenting on their pedantic behaviour. If they run insults under superficial politeness, then do the same but without any veneer of politeness. If they are obsessively sarcastic to others, then be withering about their personal characteristics. If they pontificate, then pontificate about their pontification. etc etc.
I tend to find after a few sessions on the receiving end with the powers of a sysop, then such people tend to either adapt or run away. In either case the behaviour gets moderated.
Besides, it amuses me 😈
BTW: Been off with the flu in the last few days. Lyn has no voice and coughs all night. But I am short of sleep and have a headache, a low tolerance level. Must restrain myself…
I get sick of anyone who dares to speak for any entire ‘people’. It’s nationalism at its worst. It can be used to deride a minority nd for bs nationalistic fervour.
Don’t ever speak for me. ‘We New Zealanders…’ It’s a stupid phrase.
Our national vice is stupidity. It is not that, individually, we are more stupid than other people. The trouble is that we have such a solid respect for stupidity. The result is that it pervades every department of our life, and chokes all growth.
Now that is something I can agree with and it shows in our worship of sportspeople and our disdain for the intellectual.
Excellent Pete, Excellent. There are also loose links to the theme of vto’s earlier post. Anyway, watching Campbell Live certainly challenges some assumptions, while confirming others, around the make-up of the ‘middle-New Zealand’ collective psyche.
Oh well, great scenery though (for now).
That looks like it’s more a discussion of leftist writing in NZ, which looks pretty interesting, all the same. I have a physical copy of Fairburn’s book in hand and was thumbing through it and chanced on that quote. It seemed to have struck a chord in its day, though. It’s quoted in this review.
Australia’s best-known writer Henry Lawson nearly became a New Zealander. Lawson made three trips to “Maoriland”, the first in 1894 in time to celebrate women voting for the first time in history, the last to teach at a Maori school in a remote and tiny settlement in the South Island. Lawson left after finding “the noble savage a fraud” and New Zealanders “a narrow paltryminded dog-in-the manger lot”, but later remembered that the “most pleasant days of his life were spent on an old telegraph line in New Zealand” and that he was “inclined to prefer it to all the colonies”.
So Key will have a Govt. inquiry into the Fonterra fuckup and then he says he will visit China to assure them there is no systemic problems with NZ food regulations.
Sounds like he’s already determined the outcome of yet another inquiry before it’s even been conducted.
I agree, fender, that it sounds like Key has already determined the outcome of the inquiry.
I have also been pondering on his statements (for almost a week now) that he will fly to China – initially he seemed to want to do so almost immediately; now he is saying after the inquiry. On RNZ Morning Report today, he said something to the effect that “he wanted to look down the barrels of their television cameras …”.
It just does not compute to me for a PM to do this. And Rob Oram has also just said on Nine to Noon that he considers this completely inappropriate on all sorts of levels. Replay is not yet up.
So last time he went there to promote trade he announced that we would go to war against their ally North Korea if push came to shove, which was rather quickly followed by the ‘administrative error’ that lead to our meat being barred entry to China. Now this, and he wants to “look down the barrels of their television cameras” after the state broadcaster made it really, really clear that they are a hair’s breath away from kicking us to the curb.
Got any more language of confrontation to use there John? Oh yeah, send John “Let’s talk about snapper instead” Key over there to sort them out, I’m sure the Chinese will love that.
Officials have demanded that an advertising firm stop using a network of high-tech trash cans to track people walking through London’s financial district.
The Renew ad firm has been using technology embedded in the hulking receptacles to measure the Wi-Fi signals emitted by smartphones, and suggested that it would apply the concept of “cookies” – tracking files that follow Internet users across the web – to the physical world.
“We will cookie the street,” Renew Chief Executive Kaveh Memari said in June.
High-tech rubbish bins, are presumably on public land. How did they get to be installed?
The public service of emplacing the bins would have been contracted out. Probably something similar to the AdShel bus stops we have here where they’re installed at no cost to the council and the company rents them out as advertising space.
“The more we know about each other, the safer we’ll be.”
The slogan for propaganda videos in Argentina where Police now collect fingerprints at random traffic stops. They have around 20% of the population (around 8 million prints) so far.
Well if that worries you, consider that the NZ government has a blood sample of most babies born in NZ since the 1960s. It’s only a matter of resourcing for them to have a DNA profile of a large proportion of the population.
a blood sample it needs to save lives.
Much more of a classic ethical problem than just the big brother – ticking bomb bullshit totalitarians usually come up with.
If you have been given patient consent to take a blood sample for a specific reason, once that reason is fulfiled, you have no grounds on which to either keep the sample or use it for myriad other puposes.
not really – their individual health uses don’t just finish at the initial tests. An obvious one is if the child does manifest later on a condition for which the Guthrie screening was negative. Was there a testing failure? Was it an error within the known bounds? Do we have a systemic misunderstanding about the condition? Who else is affected – everyone in that period/ that batch of cards/that lab/ that lab technician? Do we need to retest a large sample of cards to audit the system?
All of that’s strictly within the purpose of the test.
More interesting questions concern the balance between the preservation of privacy and dignity rights vs the value of the collection for health research. Then you get into more concerning issues like the divorce case where they got a court order to use the card in a paternity test, and the dividing line between using a card as the last chance to identify/rule out the most likely identity of an unidentifiable body vs the worst-case “police dragnet” scenario.
.All of that’s strictly within the purpose of the test.
So, you hold the samples for 6 months. Or 12 months.
And not like the NSA, forever more until the end of time.
vs the value of the collection for health research.
There’s no confusion or leeway here. If the patient did not consent to participate in medical research, you can’t use the samples as such. The Cartwright Inquiry was pretty clear on this point.
So, you hold the samples for 6 months. Or 12 months.
And not like the NSA, forever more until the end of time.
It’s not like there’s an expiry date on possibly finding problems in the system or comparing old processes and tests with new ones. And a bigger sample set for that is always better. So yes, you do keep them for as long as possible.
If the patient did not consent to participate in medical research, you can’t use the samples as such. The Cartwright Inquiry was pretty clear on this point.
Fucking lucky that researchers need to meet that standard then, eh. In addition to all the other ethical review criteria, of course. You leapt up onto that high horse so quickly you’re in danger of hitting your head on the stable roof.
It’s not like there’s an expiry date on possibly finding problems in the system or comparing old processes and tests with new ones. And a bigger sample set for that is always better. So yes, you do keep them for as long as possible.
Just be aware that is exactly the same rationale that the NSA uses to determine if it is capturing communications “relevant” to terrorism and national security.
That is, at any time in the future, any given set of communications may be relevant to a future investigation, therefore all communications are relevant to be targeted now to be kept indefinitely.
Fucking lucky that researchers need to meet that standard then, eh. In addition to all the other ethical review criteria, of course.
Gimme a break McFlock, there have been numerous ethical breaches by researchers not dotting eyes and crossing T’s, and you know it. Baby parts kept without permission is only one example from just a few years ago. Fucking blase “trust us and our standards” attitude doesn’t cut it.
Just be aware that is exactly the same rationale that the NSA uses to determine if it is capturing communications “relevant” to terrorism and national security.
That is, at any time in the future, any given set of communications may be relevant to a future investigation, therefore all communications are relevant to be targeted now to be kept indefinitely.
Exactly the same rationale? Some fundamental differences there, not least of which is the warrantless gathering of private data to incriminate people (including themselves). As opposed to systems being in place to prevent that happening with the Guthrie cards.
A system being designed to warrantlessly-gather and use private information is not “exactly the same” as a system designed to protect information and material from that abuse.
Gimme a break McFlock, there have been numerous ethical breaches by researchers not dotting eyes and crossing T’s, and you know it. Baby parts kept without permission is only one example from just a few years ago. Fucking blase “trust us and our standards” attitude doesn’t cut it.
I know what we could do – make you the Minister of Health, because you’re fucking perfect when it comes to healthcare. Hell, you know exactly how much fluoride you need and can apply the precise amount down to a fraction of a microgram each day, and you sure know exactly who should or should not be vaccinated and for what. And on top of that, you need absolutely no knowledge or experience in dealing with ethical matters because you already know everything. Fuck, who needs a school of medecine, royal commissions, or health councils – just ask CV.
Exactly the same rationale? Some fundamental differences there, not least of which is the warrantless gathering of private data to incriminate people (including themselves).
biological samples are rich in personal data, and yes they can certainly be used to incriminate the people that they come from and others associated with them.
What were you saying about “fundamental differences”? Doesn’t seem to me like you’ve thought it through very far, as there are in fact many fundamental similarities.
This is why we need employment regulations that protect work rights:
Ms Ryan found Mr Smith had only been paid $12.50 an hour, under the minimum wage, for the amount of work he was doing. She said the company’s behaviour was unfair.
”I consider Kereru’s apparent expectation that Mr Smith work 13 1/2 hour days, Monday to Friday, without rest or meal breaks to be unreasonable,” she said.
What really needed to happen here is that the employer be banned from owning a business or being in a management position for a few years.
Interesting Draco. I’ve chatted with a few ex couriers in recent years. It seems to be an industry that has a rep for exploiting drivers. One particular ex courier driver I spoke to said she calculated that one week she ended up working for $5 per hour. She told me that drivers can be paid per delivery/pick up only rather than be given a rate per hour. I’m not sure how this works but I think it occurs when a driver becomes a “contractor” for the courier company, rather than an employee.
I’ve banged on before about the practice of supermarket suppliers having to provide “merchandisers” to unload and stack supermarket shelves, but it is an important topic because it highlights the direction our work rights are heading in NZ, – down the toilet. This is effectively the supermarket outsourcing their work to the supplier. That means the supermarket doesn’t have to hire people in inwards goods and shelf stacking. Merchies, as they’re known are often contracted by an agency and must provide their own cell phone, computer and vehicle for the uncertain and non guaranteed hours they are hired to work. Out of their wage they pay their own ACC, tax, sick pay and holiday pay. Recently on SEEK I saw an ad where the agency wanted a worker that already had their “store safe” pass, which is a supermarket health and safety I.D card. That is the agency expected the worker was going to stump up the cost of their H&S training themselves.
This is not respectable work. It is precarious work, such as Helen Kelly discussed in her recent article on The Standard. With the National Govt eroding work rights, right from the very beginning with the 90 day bill, their 33 changes to the ERA a few years ago and now with Simon Bridges gutting whats left with his contemptuous anti Union anti worker policies, workers are now in a seriously vulnerable and powerless position. It’s going to take a lot to claw back our rights, once this side show of a govt finally comes to an end, and it’s hard to know whether anything will ever be the same again.
“The third dream was about Elsie and Jenny. I was in bed with Elsie. We were just lying sleeping together, the way Jenny and I used to lie. And she said to me, ‘Is this is it?” And I said, is it what?” And she said, “Just this. is this all there is?” And I said, “Yes”. And she turned to kiss me, and it wasn’t Elsie, it was Jenny, and a huge wave of sadness rolled over me. If I was deliriously happy walking in the hills with the Devil, this was the opposite. Happiness missed. I knew the sadness was because of some fault in me, but I didn’t know what the fault was. It was as if there was something I didn’t have, a part missing.”
-excerpt from The Testament of Gideon Mack.
–
What would you look for when comparing colleges for your child? Just NCEA results??
by Rach 12:50 PM yesterday
NCEA results, in fact tell you very little about how a school can support your child. You need to look at the academic, cultural and sporting opportunities that are important to your child. Go visit.
by Angela Roberts 12:51 PM yesterday
and
Some private schools offer assessment other than NCEA e.g. International Baccalaureate. What are the advantages of these alternative assessments?
by Jo 12:58 PM yesterday
To me, NCEA offers everything that our students need. When I met the top NCEA scholars at the start of this year, I was reassured that NCEA is able to bring out the best in our best students.
Why, oh why, is there no-one from Labour being listed for anti- GCSB public meeting in Auckland next Monday ? How many more votes do Labour plan to lose to Mana, NZF and Greens? Wtf ??
That’s just nasty, nasty, nasty. Shame you chose to repeat it .. and racist twice noting the accent in which it was delivered. There are many valid issues on which to attack this sad and unfortunate human being, but being anti-semitic hardly helps. And yes, I think you enjoin yourself to the anti-Semitism in the re-posting of it. Racism of any kind is simply not accceptable. Ugh.
Jews are not ‘a race’, they are a religion, and if you think that referring to someones heavy European,(i should have put East European), accent to be racist then i can only LOLZ at you and wonder what it’s like inside that bubble,
PS, having read widely of the progroms and many other fates suffered by those of the Jewish religion prior to the establishment of the state of Israel i once harbored a deep sympathy for such a persecuted religion,
However, the actions of the Jewish State in the modern age has evaporated such sympathies i once held…
Aaaw is you the victim now, poor poor you, yelling racism at me will just have me LOLZ one hell of a lot more,
Are Jews a race???, nope Jews hail from all over the world, all sorts of races connected by the Jewish religion so your raving of racism at me is to say the least silly and the fact that you consider anyone mentioning the language or tone of language that they have heard someone speak in as racist, in my opinion makes you far more than just silly…
There is no such thing as race. But there is such a thing as racism and to suggest that Jewish people don’t experience it is ridiculous in the extreme.
I don’t know if you were being racist in your comment, but the quote from the supermaket most definitely is. Interesting though.
Please don’t confuse the government of Israel with Judaism. Even though the Israeli government would like you to think otherwise, they are quite separate.
Actually “Jews” are define as a culture and a religion, and by bloodline. Whether one is a “Jew” or not, is usually based on their mother having been “Jewish” – a bloodline, un-connected with religion.
If those types were truly Eastern European, they have a far finer sensibility for this shit than the 99% of NZers who couldn’t tell the difference between Croation, Serbian and Hungarian if you poked them in the eye with it.
The Electoral Commission has agreed to re-register ‘ the Hairdo’s’ defunct party so the great leader rises form the ashes once more,
i heard He was thinking of a new name for the firm having besmirched the old one to it’s limits of tolerance,
Dunne is the black hole in space of New Zealand politics having sucked them all in from Christians to hunters and fishers said all have disappeared never to be heard from again…
IMO it was pretty inevidable that UF would be re-registered – 500 members is not a high number to get.
I thinkk I heard on Morning Report that Dunne was considering calling his party simply United.
In my half-awake state at the time, it crossed my mind that this could be very confusing, with both positive and negative results. That is, some people might think that his party was connected to the Unite union – and vote for it on this misapprehension. OTH, others would not vote for it if they thought the two were connected!
Dunne – shamelsss – so now we see Key praising him and talking about having him back in the cabinet – no wonder Dunne kept saying he’ll vote for the GCSB Bill against all rational arguments.
Yes but the problem for Key is that Dunne is now a busted flush. It’s very odd but every time I see Dunne now (since his resignation) he seems to me to lack any mana/confidence/credibility. Is this just me? If we could just replace Shearer with Cunliffe I would be pretty confident that we would wave bye bye to Key and his ‘orrible cohorts in 2014. That would make me feel soooo goooooood.
Yes Muzza — getting us ready for full-on GMOs … the RMA changes are clearing the way, TPPA will ensure it, and changes to food regs will guarantee we cannot oppose it. Sad days for NZ. Oh, for a life free of those acronyms !
I agree, Muzza — I think the TPPA is without doubt the most dangerous of the intentions of this government. And that all is being negotiated and signed in 100% secrecy and allowed to be signed with absolutely no reference back to Parliament must surely verge on treason. Somewhere hidden in all the regs there must be a law preventing this ?
Mai Chen, Sir Geoffrey Palmer, Professor Jane Kelsey, please?
Muzza .. I have to hope and pray that extraordinary efforts will be made to ensure everyone who can vote actually will register and vote in the next general election. This will be our only chance. After that, as you say, all bets will be off. Scary, very scary.
This is what I told the QLDC full Council today at the Public Forum:
The government is in the process of “gutting the RMA”. These are not my words, they are the words of respected financial commentator Rod Oram in last week’s Sunday Star Times. 13277 submissions were received from the public on the proposed changes to the Act- 99% opposed the changes.
The changes allow new subdivision and development anywhere and everywhere unless a council expressly restricts this through a plan rule. The QLDC has a discretionary regime in its DP for subdivision and development which means no subdivision is expressly restricted. This change is a recipe for urban sprawl and ad hoc rural subdivision anywhere in the mountains and along around lakes and rivers in this District. This has the potential to devastate the landscape values-values that that this District largely relies upon for its economic wellbeing.
Anyone who has a secluded rural residence should be scared because under the changes a subdivision will be able to be dumped next to you as of right.
Commissioners at QLDC resource consent hearings will be powerless to decline subdivision and development. Council’s power to control adverse effects will be massively reduced. The changes overturn decades of planning law.
There are major changes to s.6 and s.7 of the Act that will dilute provisions relating to matters of national importance. The requirements to maintain and enhance “amenity values” and the “quality of the environment” are deleted.
There is a new requirement that ONL and ONF’s must be “specified”. In this District there is a gradual process taking place to identify landscape categorization boundaries through the Court. This process is far from complete. The changes will mean that large areas of ONL currently non-specified in the QLDC will be removed from protection from inappropriate subdivision and development.
The changes reduce public participation. Councils currently notify only 4 to 6 per cent of applications for public submissions and only 1% of applications are appealed. The changes further reduce the need to publicly notify applications and further limit who is an affected party. The changes also further limit matters that submitters can comment on.
The changes to the Act are based on ideology rather than any evidence of the need for change. They will make 22 years of case law largely irrelevant.
The Society respectfully asks that when the Bill goes through the Select Committee process the QLDC submits in opposition to the changes described above especially any that reduce the protection of landscapes from inappropriate development.
So, so refreshing to hear Gary McCormack on RNZ this afternoon.
A very welcome respite from the usual, mainly Auckland, yuppy wanker, big-fish-putrid-little pond, wannabees. A guy who while retaining his jocularity has steel to his voice on poverty, greed, and the inevitable vileness of the socially poisonous and destructive experiment of the last 30 years.
And then we have ShonKey Python, the poncey, akshully vicious rat-like when backed into a corner, idol of the greedies and the snobs – Schnapper………sorry………snapper. For Christ’s Sake !
McCormack was great – calling poverty the elephant in the living room that no-one wants to talk about, but is the thing we should be doing something about.
Then Jim Fucking Moira said ‘oh yes, but we don’t know how much poverty contributes to child abuse, the research (which I’ve read) says… blah blab blah’. I had to get out of the car and walk away from the radio. I really don’t understand that mentality, it’s like looking for an excuse to let poverty exist. Even if research proved that poverty doesn’t increase incidence of child abuse (which it won’t), it would still be a societal wrong we should do somethign about. The ‘we don’t know how much poverty is responsible for’ argument is a completely nonsensical red herring.
I heard the programme too, North, and yes, Gary McCormick was quite excellent. Let’s hope he keeps it up. He hasn’t always been as good as he was today. Two years ago, he and Raybon Kan put on an unfunny and particularly stupid double act… http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-11032011/#comment-306974
You could hear McCormack becoming increasingly frustrated with Mora’s wordy evasions.
Surprised he tolerated the nonsense Mora was spouting.
What a pathetic liberal Mora is!
http://destinationfiji.org
Campaign worth supporting, why holiday on others misery? “Voreqe” Bainimarama tries to put the guilts on previous Aussie and NZ sanctions and censure while instituting a clampdown on Fijian workers, why do those holidays seem so cheap again…
Plus while researching was reminded that Colonel Frank was trained by experts in military coups and repression having spent some time in 1979 on the Chilean torture ship Esmeralda, plus Fiji military and individuals profited from the US “attack on Iraq” as contractors and still receive United Nations funding. Stuff ’em, don’t go there.
TV3 News – now we know the price extracted by Scummy Dunney and paid by ShonKey Python for GCSB vote. Sorted UF membership figures – renewed ministerial warrant. $100K of funding thrown in. And that’s just for now. Cup of tea in 2014 ?
Sorry – correction – $100K happens on proving the membership – ministerial salary then. Piece of sanctimonious shit ! We’re not forgetting the silly old man skeleton-in-cupboard bizo though are we ? The cupboard ShonKey Python will open at will.
Thank God we’ve got Sir Kiwi Kim Dotcom with his yet unrevealed proof (audio and visual) of ShonKey Python knowing ALL about him WELL prior to the date he claimed, thus misleading Parliament.
It’s good news in reality. Key will look a dork taking support from 2 discredited wallies-Dunne and Banks. Some of the public will pick up on this. Got to be worth 2/3 points off National’s polling at the election.
” Two large public transport organisations – Auckland Transport and KiwiRail – are holding inquiries into separate allegations of corruption over contracts.
Serious fraud investigators are waiting on findings from the inquiries before deciding whether to swoop.
Auckland Transport has put a senior manager in its road maintenance division on indefinite leave until it completes an internal investigation into what it says are “serious allegations relating to the potential misuse of public monies”.
KiwiRail has called in outside forensic accountants to make an independent review of infrastructure contracts after receiving what it says were anonymous allegations about them.
“There is no evidence of wrong-doing at this time and, as a result, we have not stood anyone down,” the state-owned rail operator’s chief executive, Jim Quinn said late yesterday in a statement to the Herald.
The Serious Fraud Office says it is aware of the two sets of investigations, and has spoken to both transport organisations.
Both had undertaken to contact the SFO if their investigations found evidence of possible fraud, a spokeswoman for the office said yesterday.
A spokesman for Auckland Mayor Len Brown said he knew of the council-controlled transport organisation’s investigation but had no comment to make about the allegations which prompted it.
Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee’s office referred Herald questions to State-Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall, whose office referred the newspaper to KiwiRail.
Auckland Transport chief executive David Warburton said a senior manager had been placed on indefinite leave after a review of procurement procedures in its road corridor maintenance operations…”
“The will of the people is the basis of the authority of government.”
Who elected this unholy alliance of the New Zealand Property Council and the hugely powerful private lobby group the Committee for Auckland to effectively run our Auckland region “like a business, by business, for business”?
The mechanism for this corporate control of the Auckland region is through council-controlled organisations – run by boards of appointed business people and executive private-sector staff.
CCOs must go!
Key council officers effectively run Auckland Council as if it were their own private business.
I support citizens’ lawful rights to privacy, but transparency and accountability for those in public office. … ”
6. Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement
I ran across a recent essay from The Brothers Krynn, which attempts to map common horror monsters onto the Seven Deadly Sins: https://canadianculturecorner.substack.com/p/horror-monsters-and-vice My interest, however, is not in the meat of the piece, but rather the opening paragraph: It is an interesting fact that in recent decades, Vampires have ...
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
A lengthy response to the recently released draft Government policy statement on transport will soon be delivered from Auckland Council to Minister of Transport Simeon Brown. A submission raising concerns about funding distribution and the plan’s treatment of Auckland passed through the council’s transport committee on Wednesday, despite some councillors ...
The unidentified foreign intelligence operation discussed in a scathing report by New Zealand’s Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) last week appears to be a controversial United States intelligence system. The IGIS report said the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) decision to host a foreign system from 2012-2020 was “improper” ...
is there any legal redress for a case like this..?
http://whoar.co.nz/2013/zero-hours-contracts-are-they-bad-for-workers-five-minute-video-debate-comment-and-how-local-scumbag-employers-are-screwing-over-workers-a-case-study/
phillip ure..
There is a couple of good articles on nef about the zero hours contracts in the UK.
A succinct paragraph is:
“Even if the Government successfully prepares people to enter employment, it is doing nothing to make sure that employment actually improves people’s livelihoods or well-being. You can’t make work pay simply by reducing benefits and sanctioning claimants for failing to turn up to jobs-training workshops.”
I would say – Paula Bennett take note, but she doesn’t seem to be a rational thinker.
And an article in the Independent: ‘The real cost of benefits squeeze: £1,600 per family’
Bubble bubble gulp gulp…..its so great being popular, more popular than spies us snapper are…swish swish….whats that????? a bottom feeder, yuck, lower than shark shit…must be a prime minister. Pollution, pollution, swim away………
Last week I posted a wee comment about a personal hero who recently passed away. He was one of NZ’s best sportsmen ever in his chosen field and he also did significant things for manwomankind. This post elicited a reply from karol around middle new Zealand values and how wrong they were. To karol’s eyes this highlighted flaws within the average kiwi and what they consider to be worthy. To my eyes karol’s response highlighted the arrogance of the far left and the contempt for “middle” New Zealand which its inhabitants so often show (just like the pricks on the far right – just a different form). The sneering so often just below the surface around here towards middle nz broke the surface. The thread is here http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-08082013/#comment-676953
And now we have another similar hero, on the front page this time. A life-saver and a leader and champion at his ‘sport’. http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9032564/Climbing-community-mourns-Kiwi-hero
So what gives?
When is a person a hero? How many heroes can there be? Is it subjective or objective? And equally importantly, why the fuck is there so much sneering by the left and far left at “middle” New Zealand? Contempt for a group of people is often described as bigotry. In addition, this sneering robs the left of a large swathe of potential voters as they turn away from such arrogance (read, ignorance)……….
@ VTO
If Heroism is the willingness to risk one’s self to protect others, then I would agree that Vinton-Boot had performed at least one heroic act:
“When he was 21, he was part of a daring rescue in which he, his younger brother and a friend swam 300m out to sea in a strong rip to save a drowning man.
The trio were alerted to the Asian tourist’s plight by one of his relatives and dived into the Christchurch surf immediately to spend 30 minutes cradling the semi-conscious man back to shore. ”
Lots of people (myself amongst them) see sports as a colossal distraction from important things – a contempt for sporting news is not necessarily contempt for middle NZ (who might see politics or art as a distraction from sport). Going from the Stuff acticles you link to; without further biographical details, I couldn’t say that Byrne had shown any degree of Heroism. He might have also been a surf-life saver, or rescued comrades under fire while in the RNZAF which might qualify him for the title, but that was not mentioned there.
Why is “great surfer” not enough of an accolade in Byrne’s case? Using the tag of “Hero” in this instance would seem to diminish the term when applied to others (such as Vinton-Boot).
vto – you said it yourself in the last thread:
“The hero piece was clearly my opinion. Heroism is, again if you think about it, subjective. ”
“… you and Karol save hero status for only the very most exceptional of people.”
The comment above looks like you are disagreeing with yourself on both those statements, and want to engage with others whose ideas of heroism align with yours, so you can say “See. Heroism is definitive – and I nailed it!”
” equally importantly, why the fuck is there so much sneering by the left and far left at “middle” New Zealand” Does it not occur to you that this is a snide comment in itself?
I just think we decide for ourselves who our personal heroes are. If your personal values include sporting achievements – then you will be admiring of those who achieve in that field. Not for me, BTW, although Sir Ed does spring to mind – not because of knocking the bugger off, but for his refusal to state whether he or Tenzing reached the summit first, by refusing to using his fame for advertising, for his life-time commitment to Nepal and for his comments regarding leaving a climber to die on the path to the summit.
NZ Herald May 24 2006
But Sir Edmund was in no doubt.
“On my expedition there was no way that you would have left a man under a rock to die.
“It simply would not have happened. It would have been a disaster from our point of view.”
As you say – subjective.
just cos someone wants your vote doesn’t mean they have to like you eh….I think it illustrates a huge disconnect….I’m pretty sure I’ve even seen a suggestion that Grant Robertson could lead a Labour party to victory….. maybe in Wellington, but I’m not 100% sure.
We need a lot more heroes of all the different kinds there could be.
finally RIP AB. legend.
http://surf.co.nz/blogs/surf-search/2011/11/2448-amco-hauraki-nz-surf-nats-1976-piha
Grant Robertson is ineligible to be the Leader: he was beaten by the Greens and the Nats for party vote in Central. The performance at the last election by Labour in the wellington hutt region was very worrying.
@VTO. Just read the thread from last week and fully understand your question about the sneering Left. Bored went AWOL because of this unthinking “correctness”, Ennui is still bored with it. There is a lot of unthinking dogma around here and it reflects in how the electorate view large chunks of the “Left”.
Yesterday Sanctuary gave us a view of the Left that is uncomfortably close to the mark, even if I did not give it total credence. http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-12082013/#comment-678454 Parts of his message were rightly panned, but the core accusation drew so little response. Sad, because unless we examine our dark corners we will remain undesirable and un-electable.
The trait of being triumphantly superior over others with regards supposed intelligence is one piece of shit many of the left most definately need to dump.
Another risible aspect of the left is the widespread inability to recognise the political/cultural roots of some left thoughts/beliefs/habits…so for example, the habit to smooth over of the authoritarian past, meaning it gets preserved in the present and projected into the future (both by left cultists and social democrats) and who then, inevitably by dint of excusing and perpetuating past habits, cut the legs off any chance there may be of developing a society that embraces leftist values.
But then, from my (allegedly) hard left perspective, I would say that – wouldn’t I? 😉
You are not alone in the wings Bill.
Nicely put Bill: I sort of reside on the “hard left”. One of the salutary lessons I learnt as a (former) Marxist is that a prescribed ideology that has as a core belief its’ own undeniable “truth” is a cop out for non thinkers. Therein lies no wriggle room nor forgiveness. No shades of grey. In short entrenched materialist ideologies like Marxism, Neo Liberalism, etc lack humanity, so I dropped them.
You’re giving Marxism too hard a time, and too little credit.
Marxism did something that almost no other political-economic philosophy did at the time: it gave an insightful, yet brutal, critique of capitalism as a system, and as capitalism as the basis of a society. It pointed out what is obvious to every serious Lefty today: that in a capitalist system it is those people who own the assets and the capital who make out like bandits, and those people who only have their labour, who get fucked.
Do you know why so many Labour MPs sound completely wishy-washy about the problems in our society, despite their good intentions?
Because even as they go on the attack over an important issue like say…child poverty…hardly any of them go on to recognise and attack the actual neoliberal machinery which is behind the problem. So we get “solutions” like…a Ministry for Children, more healthcare checks, food in schools, transfer payments for families with kids, and meanwhile…the neoliberal machinery just keeps rumbling on in the background.
CV, I still think some of the analysis by Marx such as relationship to production, surplus value, capital accumulation etc is incredibly valuable.
Where I diverge from Marx is that he, like all of Voltaires children is a rationalist who uses logical constructs to prove his point…which in the example of his historic dialectic is obviously wrong. The neo libs, leftist libertarians etc do much the same…its a one trick pony. If you begin an argument at a set point (of your precise choosing) you can logically prove anything…until you get into the real world. There you meet Ennuis First Law…”if theory and reality by some random chance ever meet they are already probably divergent”.
Our leftist parliamentarians…how many of them have ever actually pulled the levers of the neo lib machinery? Or ever been any closer than taking a cheque to keep quiet about the realities? Their role is the application of band aids, not the removal of the knife.
same applies to the general analysis of the implications of greater surveillance by the state and corporates; analysis not going much deeper than each individual’s assessment of their own current data histories and context. Guess they’ll learn in time with the cadence.
It just looks to me like those who question the dominance of values skewed towards the white male establishment are dismissed as “hard left” and “arrogant” and “sneering”?
Seems to me a lot of pots and kettles.
What exactly is “hard left” about, for instance, the Claudia Bell quotes above?
The morale of a people is heavily affected by their heroes, whether they be quiet unassuming ones recognised only in a family, neighbourhood or community, and the ones seen leading the story of the 6pm news.
I’m really surprised that feminism doesn’t recognise any heroes amongst its own ranks.
I understand that black South Africans and indigenous Burmese have their own local home-grown political heroes too.
In which case K should the “hard left” not be allowed to include white male values? Are we to be categorised, condemned and thrown into the outer darkness as beyond redemption?
It may be a little subtle but once on this blog I was “advised” (upon point of excommunication) to read and adhere to Feminism 101…..I did. I also reread Alice in Wonderland, which made perfect sense. It clearly stated that “nothing is as it seems”. Maybe we would all do better to only write when under the influence of vast quantities of lordinum.
In which case K should the “hard left” not be allowed to include white male values? Are we to be categorised, condemned and thrown into the outer darkness as beyond redemption?
Ennui, I’m not sure how this relates to my comments critical of sports focused heroes & the dominant culture in NZ? Yes I did say something about such dominant values being skewed towards the white male establishment.
You “far left” point doesn’t seem to relate to anything I have said on this issue.
For being critical of the individualistic heroic man vs wild (“man alone”) ethos, I have been personally attacked as being a “bigot”, “arrogant”, “far left” and dismissive of “middle NZ”
But I said nothing about white male* values being included or excluded from the “hard left” (or that it was only embraced by white males*) – and indeed, I have question being called “far left” – a term often used in a very subjective way – see for instance the way John Key calling anyone critical of his pro-corporate and wealthy elite agenda as “far left”. I have never considered myself to be hard of far left.
It was vto who started saying my criticism of the white male values are “far left” – I have never owned that.
* I should have said traditional white masculine values – it’s about cultural values not biological sex.
OK, we can be “we hard lefties”.
OK, we can be “we hard lefties”.
may we detect an intentional spelling error therein oh nonchalant one…
Does one heroic act a hero make?
Interesting, vto, that the examples you give, and that are particularly promoted by the MSM, are male sportsmen in the old man vs wild narrative – and individualistic.
They did carry out very commendable actions at risk to themselves. Many other people, in diverse (non-sporting) fields, get far less attention for their heroic actions. Or if they do get attention, like Jon Stephenson, they tend to be called something other than heroes.
The occupiers of Noble Discoverer all collectively (not just Lucy Lawless) participated in a heroic act.
The women protesting at the removals of people from Glen Innes state houses, are carrying out on-going heroic acts, with little media spotlight, and, when they are mention, the hero word is not used.
When I was growing up I tended to admire individuals – I’m not sure I would have used the “hero” word. But they were people who i thought did noble and worthy things in their lives:
Helen Keller, for instance.
“Far left”? Really? That’s not how I think of myself. it sounds like a very subjective term. What exactly does that mean? Ditto “Middle New Zealand”? Is it like Brash’s “mainstream New Zealand”? Is any challenge to the NZ status quo deemed contemptuous of “middle New Zealand?
Agree with you on the use of the word “Hero”. Never feel comfortable using it myself – reminds me of Greek mythology and the unquestioning subservience of mere mortals to the Gods…
Don’t have the same disquiet referring to heroic acts though, – perhaps, because I’m comfortable with the idea that people are made up of many parts – and sometimes one could be honorable, brave and inspiring and at other times petty, dishonest and shrill.
After months on TradeMe’s saved searches I finally managed to buy a copy of Claudia Bell’s – Inventing New Zealand – everyday myths of pakeha identity. I borrowed it from Auckland libraries a few months ago, and felt like it was a book written straight out of my head. But of course – with better sentence structure and form.
I understand Paul Moon has released something similar, but from the excerpts I’ve read, seems fairly lightweight.
A couple of excerpts:
The strongest place in public representations of New Zealand way of life is claimed by the events, celebrations, lifestyle and material consumption of the more advantaged group. Just as the economic and political interests of the most powerful in the Pakeha group are manipulated into prominence and maintained there, so does this same group have most access to constructing national imagery. This is available because of the social status and political power of Pakeha: symbols of Pakeha culture are the dominant icons for national identity. The loudest voice proclaiming identity is the one that persuades the nation. Television has the loudest voice of all.”
Because the book was published in 1996, she gives the example of the America’s Cup:
A brilliant illustration of this was the America’s Cup welcome-home parade up Queen Street, Auckland in May, 1995, sponsored by TV One.
The America’s Cup was shown on every news broadcast, so this event looked like a very important part of national culture. This occurred through negotiation by several agencies: the sponsors, the event organisers, the decision-makers in the media (who made what mileage they could out of the event by being ‘good sports’ and stating ‘how good this is for the country’), and the audience, who gradually ‘learned’ to be interested.
…Winning the cup was claimed by television as being a win for the nation as a whole: ‘we’ salute ‘our’ heroes; ‘we’ won the cup! – an especially delicious win, given the far greater resource power of the opposition.
…It might seem a bit unlikely to match an expensive sport like yachting to the tradition of achievement of ordinary New Zealanders. The nature of the race – offshore, far away, out of sight – is such that without television it was not and could not be a spectator sport. Ordinary New Zealanders could not go along for a few hours and watch and cheer. An event thousands of kilometres away raced by an exclusive group of white male professionals with access to a vast amount of money was seen as a major milestone in national history. Converted from offshore race to media spectacle, it allowed ‘everyone’ in the nation to participate.
The America’s Cup win conveniently distracted us from more contentious events occurring at the same time, that ‘we’ would not want to be taken as ‘representative’ of ‘us’. Race relations issues were also in the news that week, with Maori activist Mike Smith taking a chainsaw to the iconic pine tree on One Tree Hill, the Motua Gardens demonstration in Wanganui, and two Members of Parliament playing racist games on a daytime radio talk show. Politicians and media people do not want these latter occurrences to be seen as ‘representative’ events. The ‘Welcome Home’ America’s Cup parades could be described a therapeutic symbolic displays of nationalism. Appropriately fostered, patriotic feelings cut across class groups, and affect women and men, adults and children, alike. With all eyes on the screen, a nation could feel united.”
Fast forward to 2013… seems not a lot has changed.
Yes, Claudia Bell’s book is worth a read. i read it several years back now, so don’t remember a lot of detail. Excellent quote, thanks, Molly.
Molly, you might have mentioned the original Hero. She (yes Hero was a female) lit a candle for her lover Leander who would swim the Hellespont for her embrace. One stormy night the candle blew out, Leander lost his way and drowned, and Hero in a fit of grief threw herself from a cliff to join her lover in death. make of it what you will.
… don’t gamble your life on someone else’s swimming prowess….
…expect your lover to own his own compass…
…candles may be environmentally friendlier, but LEDs rule…
…forget about sex on a stormy night, unless you live on the same peninsula…
…thanks, Ennui, for the redirection.
Lovely
I do believe the moral of the tale was: don’t bet your life on a woman operating complex equipment correctly 😈
or setting up the flat-screen and de-coder
Contrary to what appears to be popular belief, sporting achievements do not a hero make.
not even a personal hero?
would that be permitted?
I consider John Minto a hero, far more than someone who takes personal risks in the interests of following their recreational pursuits. Assange has some heroic qualities. A woman who works 2 or 3 jobs to feed and clothe her kids is a heroine. If that makes me a sneering far lefty in your cataloguing system, too bloody bad.
Thanks to all the posters above for your feedback. Unfortunately circumstances intervened yesterday short-circuiting intended conversations…
It seems there are several related tangents. Firstly, that sport is put on a pedestal that is above its reasonable position and I agree that is the case. It is interesting that nobody put up anything about how sports arrived at that place, how sport developed as not just recreation but a form of practice for running down the wounded impala, or cutting the most lumber in a day. From a time when physical prowess had a direct and immediate impact on provision for the family. This was lost just a few generations ago and so of course such a central feature of life for milleniums doesn’t change overnight.
And heroism is certainly subjective. Imo heroism does not arise solely because of sporting success (in these particular cases), it arises due to more humane acts – putting ones life at risk, dedicating ones life to good causes, even bad causes have their heroes though too. It arises in all sorts of spheres – the local nurse, the ed Hilary, the forgotten foster parents. We all know this I think. Heroic acts can be small and forgotten the next day – they can be large and remembered for a lifetime and beyond.
Then of course the sneering. That subject will most definitely arise again, most probably by way of example when some stupid person stereotypes all middle nz as having some equal set of values, unable to realise that you cannot judge a driver by their vehicle. Good bit of sneering going on in a mini-thread just below about stupid people though.
476 millon dollars write down in asset value +30 million dollars
The subsidy to Rio Tinto.
link? thx
An article in Friday’s Independent warns that world wide there has been an increasing over-investment in farming, making agriculture particularly vulnerable to environmental disasters.
Suspected! 15 Quadrillion becquerels of radioactive material in the trench that TEPCO is now admitting water is leaking from into the groundwater. Muwahahahaha, but hey I’m just the alarmist!
You said it.
I don’t think that “quadrillion” is a real number. I mean, how many “quadrillion” to the googleplex?
lol
About 0.0002. (I think I have the right number of zeroes)
This is based on the assumption that the people who work for Google, and are therefore in the Googleplex which is the name of their headquarters, are worth about $200 billion between them.
It also uses the American definition of quadrillion which is 10 to the power of 15.
There, wasn’t that something you were just dying to know?
And that’s assuming that the mass:volume unit conversion in the link was correct, which it would only be if they were talking about pure water.
I don’t really think you meant to reply to my comment did you?
I certainly wasn’t talking about the subject of the original comment re radioactivity.
Now that I observe it, you are in a state of being correct and a small piece of my ego has been converted into humility…
A lot. In fact it is theorised that if you had fine dust particles each a micron in size you could fit approx a googol of them in the volume of the universe. Easy to write out though, just 1 with a hundred zeroes.
A googolplex however would require a different mindset to quantify. Each of those dust particles would carry a zero to write it out in full. Now consider a “googolplexian” – a 1 with a googolplex of zeroes after it. Possibly the largest number with a name, although I can’t determine if Graham’s number is larger. Cerebral torture trying to work it out.
😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯
😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯
😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯
😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯 😯
+1 🙂
Graham’s number is larger than a googolplex.
John Key on Campbell last night – double *ugh*.
Reporter says they are doing a piece on the GCSB bill on Campbell Live…he doesn’t answer her question(s), but says that they would get more viewers if they did a piece on the snapper quota instead. Whatever the reporter says he comes back to the snapper….because “people fish”.
Patronising git.
keys’ comment on spooking vs fishing:..
..hubris with a fishy flavour..?
..phillip ure..
A.R.D. Fairburn, We New Zealanders, 1944, p.14.
The more things change, huh?
Are these “stupid” people, “middle New Zealand”?
Well, he does goes on to write:
Awesome quotes, Pete.
Karol – “stupid” people, exist at all/every level of so called society, however depending on the definition of “stupid”, the parameters which is exits in, will depend on the message attempting to conveyed.
In this instance, I would expect the parameteres are all encompassing, because “stupid”, is everywhere, all with contributing levels of negative influence!
I rarely use the word “stupid” to describe people. I am more likely to use it to refer to actions and words.
Intelligent people can say and/or do “stupid” things.
I’m somewhat more judgemental of judgemental people myself.
Comes of many long hours moderating and deciding that there is only one effective way to deal with such people. That is to hold an high-handed and quite extremist mirror to their own extremist behaviour. In other words if they are arrogant, then be even more arrogant to them. If they are boring pedants, then be a even more effective pedant commenting on their pedantic behaviour. If they run insults under superficial politeness, then do the same but without any veneer of politeness. If they are obsessively sarcastic to others, then be withering about their personal characteristics. If they pontificate, then pontificate about their pontification. etc etc.
I tend to find after a few sessions on the receiving end with the powers of a sysop, then such people tend to either adapt or run away. In either case the behaviour gets moderated.
Besides, it amuses me 😈
BTW: Been off with the flu in the last few days. Lyn has no voice and coughs all night. But I am short of sleep and have a headache, a low tolerance level. Must restrain myself…
and comb one’s hair at the same time.
I get sick of anyone who dares to speak for any entire ‘people’. It’s nationalism at its worst. It can be used to deride a minority nd for bs nationalistic fervour.
Don’t ever speak for me. ‘We New Zealanders…’ It’s a stupid phrase.
despite your understandable insistence of individualism…the quotes explain so much, don’t you think…
This reads as a reply to moi Tigger; personally, i’m Notoriously non-patriotic since completing the Tao Te Ching. (which I’m re-reading). 😀
To re-read, is to read for the very first time 😉
Now that is something I can agree with and it shows in our worship of sportspeople and our disdain for the intellectual.
“Nobody ever went broke overestimating the stupidity of the average New zealander….”
Excellent Pete, Excellent. There are also loose links to the theme of vto’s earlier post. Anyway, watching Campbell Live certainly challenges some assumptions, while confirming others, around the make-up of the ‘middle-New Zealand’ collective psyche.
Oh well, great scenery though (for now).
On line link to Fairbairn’s essay http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BarPopu.html
That looks like it’s more a discussion of leftist writing in NZ, which looks pretty interesting, all the same. I have a physical copy of Fairburn’s book in hand and was thumbing through it and chanced on that quote. It seemed to have struck a chord in its day, though. It’s quoted in this review.
And I had a copy of a Henry Lawson quote in front of me this morning. He said: that New Zealanders are
Though the full context isn’t as dismissive:
…prefer Patterson……
Trying again… http://digital.slv.vic.gov.au/view/action/singleViewer.do?dvs=1376352925648~592&locale=en_GB&metadata_object_ratio=10&show_metadata=true&preferred_usage_type=VIEW_MAIN&frameId=1&usePid1=true&usePid2=true
So Key will have a Govt. inquiry into the Fonterra fuckup and then he says he will visit China to assure them there is no systemic problems with NZ food regulations.
Sounds like he’s already determined the outcome of yet another inquiry before it’s even been conducted.
I agree, fender, that it sounds like Key has already determined the outcome of the inquiry.
I have also been pondering on his statements (for almost a week now) that he will fly to China – initially he seemed to want to do so almost immediately; now he is saying after the inquiry. On RNZ Morning Report today, he said something to the effect that “he wanted to look down the barrels of their television cameras …”.
It just does not compute to me for a PM to do this. And Rob Oram has also just said on Nine to Noon that he considers this completely inappropriate on all sorts of levels. Replay is not yet up.
I have much respect for Rod Oram, imagine being lucky enough to have a PM with his insight and intelligence instead of a crooked rusty Key.
Ears pricked up at “…look down the barrels…” but, alas, was only a ‘side-by-side’ juxtaposition.
So last time he went there to promote trade he announced that we would go to war against their ally North Korea if push came to shove, which was rather quickly followed by the ‘administrative error’ that lead to our meat being barred entry to China. Now this, and he wants to “look down the barrels of their television cameras” after the state broadcaster made it really, really clear that they are a hair’s breath away from kicking us to the curb.
Got any more language of confrontation to use there John? Oh yeah, send John “Let’s talk about snapper instead” Key over there to sort them out, I’m sure the Chinese will love that.
Surveillance by corporate rubbish bin: ‘Minority Report’ in action:
Are wifi signals permanently on on smartphones? Or just when people are accessing hotspots?
High-tech rubbish bins, are presumably on public land. How did they get to be installed?
You can turn off. And you should..
More info
http://www.osimood.com/2013/02/you-should-really-turn-off-your-phones-wifi-when-you-do-not-use-it/
The public service of emplacing the bins would have been contracted out. Probably something similar to the AdShel bus stops we have here where they’re installed at no cost to the council and the company rents them out as advertising space.
“The more we know about each other, the safer we’ll be.”
The slogan for propaganda videos in Argentina where Police now collect fingerprints at random traffic stops. They have around 20% of the population (around 8 million prints) so far.
Source: Sovereign Man.
Well if that worries you, consider that the NZ government has a blood sample of most babies born in NZ since the 1960s. It’s only a matter of resourcing for them to have a DNA profile of a large proportion of the population.
a blood sample it needs to save lives.
Much more of a classic ethical problem than just the big brother – ticking bomb bullshit totalitarians usually come up with.
Oh, I have no objection to the tests. I just find the indefinite retention of them to be questionable.
highly questionable.
If you have been given patient consent to take a blood sample for a specific reason, once that reason is fulfiled, you have no grounds on which to either keep the sample or use it for myriad other puposes.
not really – their individual health uses don’t just finish at the initial tests. An obvious one is if the child does manifest later on a condition for which the Guthrie screening was negative. Was there a testing failure? Was it an error within the known bounds? Do we have a systemic misunderstanding about the condition? Who else is affected – everyone in that period/ that batch of cards/that lab/ that lab technician? Do we need to retest a large sample of cards to audit the system?
All of that’s strictly within the purpose of the test.
More interesting questions concern the balance between the preservation of privacy and dignity rights vs the value of the collection for health research. Then you get into more concerning issues like the divorce case where they got a court order to use the card in a paternity test, and the dividing line between using a card as the last chance to identify/rule out the most likely identity of an unidentifiable body vs the worst-case “police dragnet” scenario.
So, you hold the samples for 6 months. Or 12 months.
And not like the NSA, forever more until the end of time.
There’s no confusion or leeway here. If the patient did not consent to participate in medical research, you can’t use the samples as such. The Cartwright Inquiry was pretty clear on this point.
It’s not like there’s an expiry date on possibly finding problems in the system or comparing old processes and tests with new ones. And a bigger sample set for that is always better. So yes, you do keep them for as long as possible.
Fucking lucky that researchers need to meet that standard then, eh. In addition to all the other ethical review criteria, of course. You leapt up onto that high horse so quickly you’re in danger of hitting your head on the stable roof.
Just be aware that is exactly the same rationale that the NSA uses to determine if it is capturing communications “relevant” to terrorism and national security.
That is, at any time in the future, any given set of communications may be relevant to a future investigation, therefore all communications are relevant to be targeted now to be kept indefinitely.
Gimme a break McFlock, there have been numerous ethical breaches by researchers not dotting eyes and crossing T’s, and you know it. Baby parts kept without permission is only one example from just a few years ago. Fucking blase “trust us and our standards” attitude doesn’t cut it.
Exactly the same rationale? Some fundamental differences there, not least of which is the warrantless gathering of private data to incriminate people (including themselves). As opposed to systems being in place to prevent that happening with the Guthrie cards.
A system being designed to warrantlessly-gather and use private information is not “exactly the same” as a system designed to protect information and material from that abuse.
Gimme a break McFlock, there have been numerous ethical breaches by researchers not dotting eyes and crossing T’s, and you know it. Baby parts kept without permission is only one example from just a few years ago. Fucking blase “trust us and our standards” attitude doesn’t cut it.
I know what we could do – make you the Minister of Health, because you’re fucking perfect when it comes to healthcare. Hell, you know exactly how much fluoride you need and can apply the precise amount down to a fraction of a microgram each day, and you sure know exactly who should or should not be vaccinated and for what. And on top of that, you need absolutely no knowledge or experience in dealing with ethical matters because you already know everything. Fuck, who needs a school of medecine, royal commissions, or health councils – just ask CV.
Seems I hit a nerve. Sorry mate.
biological samples are rich in personal data, and yes they can certainly be used to incriminate the people that they come from and others associated with them.
What were you saying about “fundamental differences”? Doesn’t seem to me like you’ve thought it through very far, as there are in fact many fundamental similarities.
I suddenly remembered with whom I was trying to have a rational discussion about a health system.
The only common factor in the two examples is that personal data (in electronic or biological form) is held by a government organisation. That is it.
One system is especially designed to make off-spec gathering, use or abuse of that data as easy as possible.
The other system is especially designed to make such abuse as difficult, obvious and preventable as possible.
Ducks and ships are completely different things, even if they both float.
Hey mate, whatever.
Is the sample necessary, or just the blood type?
This is why we need employment regulations that protect work rights:
What really needed to happen here is that the employer be banned from owning a business or being in a management position for a few years.
Interesting Draco. I’ve chatted with a few ex couriers in recent years. It seems to be an industry that has a rep for exploiting drivers. One particular ex courier driver I spoke to said she calculated that one week she ended up working for $5 per hour. She told me that drivers can be paid per delivery/pick up only rather than be given a rate per hour. I’m not sure how this works but I think it occurs when a driver becomes a “contractor” for the courier company, rather than an employee.
I’ve banged on before about the practice of supermarket suppliers having to provide “merchandisers” to unload and stack supermarket shelves, but it is an important topic because it highlights the direction our work rights are heading in NZ, – down the toilet. This is effectively the supermarket outsourcing their work to the supplier. That means the supermarket doesn’t have to hire people in inwards goods and shelf stacking. Merchies, as they’re known are often contracted by an agency and must provide their own cell phone, computer and vehicle for the uncertain and non guaranteed hours they are hired to work. Out of their wage they pay their own ACC, tax, sick pay and holiday pay. Recently on SEEK I saw an ad where the agency wanted a worker that already had their “store safe” pass, which is a supermarket health and safety I.D card. That is the agency expected the worker was going to stump up the cost of their H&S training themselves.
This is not respectable work. It is precarious work, such as Helen Kelly discussed in her recent article on The Standard. With the National Govt eroding work rights, right from the very beginning with the 90 day bill, their 33 changes to the ERA a few years ago and now with Simon Bridges gutting whats left with his contemptuous anti Union anti worker policies, workers are now in a seriously vulnerable and powerless position. It’s going to take a lot to claw back our rights, once this side show of a govt finally comes to an end, and it’s hard to know whether anything will ever be the same again.
“The third dream was about Elsie and Jenny. I was in bed with Elsie. We were just lying sleeping together, the way Jenny and I used to lie. And she said to me, ‘Is this is it?” And I said, is it what?” And she said, “Just this. is this all there is?” And I said, “Yes”. And she turned to kiss me, and it wasn’t Elsie, it was Jenny, and a huge wave of sadness rolled over me. If I was deliriously happy walking in the hills with the Devil, this was the opposite. Happiness missed. I knew the sadness was because of some fault in me, but I didn’t know what the fault was. It was as if there was something I didn’t have, a part missing.”
-excerpt from The Testament of Gideon Mack.
My take on National party aspirations:
It’s not about keeping up with the Jones’s anymore. It’s about keeping the Smiths beneath you.
+1
That’s it exactly. They’re at the top and they want to stay there and so they work to keep everyone else down.
+1
That really needs to be on a gallery spot on TDB.
if only everyone had a bach at omaha…imagine the market for a permit to fish the leigh reserve.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9030855/Live-chat-School-advice-for-parents
–
What would you look for when comparing colleges for your child? Just NCEA results??
by Rach 12:50 PM yesterday
NCEA results, in fact tell you very little about how a school can support your child. You need to look at the academic, cultural and sporting opportunities that are important to your child. Go visit.
by Angela Roberts 12:51 PM yesterday
and
Some private schools offer assessment other than NCEA e.g. International Baccalaureate. What are the advantages of these alternative assessments?
by Jo 12:58 PM yesterday
To me, NCEA offers everything that our students need. When I met the top NCEA scholars at the start of this year, I was reassured that NCEA is able to bring out the best in our best students.
by Angela Roberts 12:59 PM yesterday
No mixed messages there…
Why, oh why, is there no-one from Labour being listed for anti- GCSB public meeting in Auckland next Monday ? How many more votes do Labour plan to lose to Mana, NZF and Greens? Wtf ??
Anne commented today that there will be a Labour speaker there.
thx karol .. appreciate it.
Overheard in the supermarket today in a heavy European accent, ”That f**king Jew has told one too many lies”,
Only took a nano-second to figure out who was the subject of that conversation…
That’s just nasty, nasty, nasty. Shame you chose to repeat it .. and racist twice noting the accent in which it was delivered. There are many valid issues on which to attack this sad and unfortunate human being, but being anti-semitic hardly helps. And yes, I think you enjoin yourself to the anti-Semitism in the re-posting of it. Racism of any kind is simply not accceptable. Ugh.
Jews are not ‘a race’, they are a religion, and if you think that referring to someones heavy European,(i should have put East European), accent to be racist then i can only LOLZ at you and wonder what it’s like inside that bubble,
PS, having read widely of the progroms and many other fates suffered by those of the Jewish religion prior to the establishment of the state of Israel i once harbored a deep sympathy for such a persecuted religion,
However, the actions of the Jewish State in the modern age has evaporated such sympathies i once held…
And none of which, including your odd attack on me, precludes the fact that re-posting racism enjoins you to it.
Aaaw is you the victim now, poor poor you, yelling racism at me will just have me LOLZ one hell of a lot more,
Are Jews a race???, nope Jews hail from all over the world, all sorts of races connected by the Jewish religion so your raving of racism at me is to say the least silly and the fact that you consider anyone mentioning the language or tone of language that they have heard someone speak in as racist, in my opinion makes you far more than just silly…
And nothing of which you write precludes the fact that re-posting racism enjoins you to it.
“Are Jews a race???”
There is no such thing as race. But there is such a thing as racism and to suggest that Jewish people don’t experience it is ridiculous in the extreme.
I don’t know if you were being racist in your comment, but the quote from the supermaket most definitely is. Interesting though.
Please don’t confuse the government of Israel with Judaism. Even though the Israeli government would like you to think otherwise, they are quite separate.
Actually “Jews” are define as a culture and a religion, and by bloodline. Whether one is a “Jew” or not, is usually based on their mother having been “Jewish” – a bloodline, un-connected with religion.
Oh well those folks in the pak’n’slave talking in that heavy Eastern European accent had their facts right then…
If those types were truly Eastern European, they have a far finer sensibility for this shit than the 99% of NZers who couldn’t tell the difference between Croation, Serbian and Hungarian if you poked them in the eye with it.
The Electoral Commission has agreed to re-register ‘ the Hairdo’s’ defunct party so the great leader rises form the ashes once more,
i heard He was thinking of a new name for the firm having besmirched the old one to it’s limits of tolerance,
Dunne is the black hole in space of New Zealand politics having sucked them all in from Christians to hunters and fishers said all have disappeared never to be heard from again…
IMO it was pretty inevidable that UF would be re-registered – 500 members is not a high number to get.
I thinkk I heard on Morning Report that Dunne was considering calling his party simply United.
In my half-awake state at the time, it crossed my mind that this could be very confusing, with both positive and negative results. That is, some people might think that his party was connected to the Unite union – and vote for it on this misapprehension. OTH, others would not vote for it if they thought the two were connected!
Might be a Dunne case of United We Stand, Derided We Fall ( with apologies to Hot Chocolate).
“I thinkk I heard on Morning Report that Dunne was considering calling his party simply United”
lol Because the ‘future’ part no longer applies?
Dunne – shamelsss – so now we see Key praising him and talking about having him back in the cabinet – no wonder Dunne kept saying he’ll vote for the GCSB Bill against all rational arguments.
He’s been tamed. Owned by Key.
Yes but the problem for Key is that Dunne is now a busted flush. It’s very odd but every time I see Dunne now (since his resignation) he seems to me to lack any mana/confidence/credibility. Is this just me? If we could just replace Shearer with Cunliffe I would be pretty confident that we would wave bye bye to Key and his ‘orrible cohorts in 2014. That would make me feel soooo goooooood.
Picture of the day – from KDC’s Twitter. Obama and his Key dummy.
LOL – would make a good Cartoon Competition!
http://t.co/ukoPxXN7Pq
Food bill submission end on Friday, which has been cloaked by the GCSB discussions.
We are being systematically dismantled, on 360 degrees!
Yes Muzza — getting us ready for full-on GMOs … the RMA changes are clearing the way, TPPA will ensure it, and changes to food regs will guarantee we cannot oppose it. Sad days for NZ. Oh, for a life free of those acronyms !
Nicely joined up.
The changes are always sold in silo, as if there are no links or interdependencies, this is where the punters, get right royally shafted!
Nz = Monsanto Inc (incubation laboritory)!
How many years you reckon until it’s troops on the street enforcing these new laws?
My opinion, once the TPPA is in place, all bets are off, due to the speed at which the corporations will have open access, once we are locked in!
I agree, Muzza — I think the TPPA is without doubt the most dangerous of the intentions of this government. And that all is being negotiated and signed in 100% secrecy and allowed to be signed with absolutely no reference back to Parliament must surely verge on treason. Somewhere hidden in all the regs there must be a law preventing this ?
Mai Chen, Sir Geoffrey Palmer, Professor Jane Kelsey, please?
Muzza .. I have to hope and pray that extraordinary efforts will be made to ensure everyone who can vote actually will register and vote in the next general election. This will be our only chance. After that, as you say, all bets will be off. Scary, very scary.
This is what I told the QLDC full Council today at the Public Forum:
The government is in the process of “gutting the RMA”. These are not my words, they are the words of respected financial commentator Rod Oram in last week’s Sunday Star Times. 13277 submissions were received from the public on the proposed changes to the Act- 99% opposed the changes.
The changes allow new subdivision and development anywhere and everywhere unless a council expressly restricts this through a plan rule. The QLDC has a discretionary regime in its DP for subdivision and development which means no subdivision is expressly restricted. This change is a recipe for urban sprawl and ad hoc rural subdivision anywhere in the mountains and along around lakes and rivers in this District. This has the potential to devastate the landscape values-values that that this District largely relies upon for its economic wellbeing.
Anyone who has a secluded rural residence should be scared because under the changes a subdivision will be able to be dumped next to you as of right.
Commissioners at QLDC resource consent hearings will be powerless to decline subdivision and development. Council’s power to control adverse effects will be massively reduced. The changes overturn decades of planning law.
There are major changes to s.6 and s.7 of the Act that will dilute provisions relating to matters of national importance. The requirements to maintain and enhance “amenity values” and the “quality of the environment” are deleted.
There is a new requirement that ONL and ONF’s must be “specified”. In this District there is a gradual process taking place to identify landscape categorization boundaries through the Court. This process is far from complete. The changes will mean that large areas of ONL currently non-specified in the QLDC will be removed from protection from inappropriate subdivision and development.
The changes reduce public participation. Councils currently notify only 4 to 6 per cent of applications for public submissions and only 1% of applications are appealed. The changes further reduce the need to publicly notify applications and further limit who is an affected party. The changes also further limit matters that submitters can comment on.
The changes to the Act are based on ideology rather than any evidence of the need for change. They will make 22 years of case law largely irrelevant.
The Society respectfully asks that when the Bill goes through the Select Committee process the QLDC submits in opposition to the changes described above especially any that reduce the protection of landscapes from inappropriate development.
More bloody treason by this government. Incredible post, thank you. Kia Kaha, BG.
It’ll be open slather down here on the West Coast. Expect McMansions along the Coast Road, particularly around Punakaiki
https://www.facebook.com/StandDownJohnKey
a growing collection of some of the adapted images honouring our great leader and his colleagues.
-many probably nsfw
So, so refreshing to hear Gary McCormack on RNZ this afternoon.
A very welcome respite from the usual, mainly Auckland, yuppy wanker, big-fish-putrid-little pond, wannabees. A guy who while retaining his jocularity has steel to his voice on poverty, greed, and the inevitable vileness of the socially poisonous and destructive experiment of the last 30 years.
And then we have ShonKey Python, the poncey, akshully vicious rat-like when backed into a corner, idol of the greedies and the snobs – Schnapper………sorry………snapper. For Christ’s Sake !
Calling Morrissey………
+1 North.
Oh to see and hear more from Gary McCormack.
McCormack was great – calling poverty the elephant in the living room that no-one wants to talk about, but is the thing we should be doing something about.
Then Jim Fucking Moira said ‘oh yes, but we don’t know how much poverty contributes to child abuse, the research (which I’ve read) says… blah blab blah’. I had to get out of the car and walk away from the radio. I really don’t understand that mentality, it’s like looking for an excuse to let poverty exist. Even if research proved that poverty doesn’t increase incidence of child abuse (which it won’t), it would still be a societal wrong we should do somethign about. The ‘we don’t know how much poverty is responsible for’ argument is a completely nonsensical red herring.
I heard the programme too, North, and yes, Gary McCormick was quite excellent. Let’s hope he keeps it up. He hasn’t always been as good as he was today. Two years ago, he and Raybon Kan put on an unfunny and particularly stupid double act…
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-11032011/#comment-306974
You could hear McCormack becoming increasingly frustrated with Mora’s wordy evasions.
Surprised he tolerated the nonsense Mora was spouting.
What a pathetic liberal Mora is!
The liberal elite are not particularly close friends of the underclasses or the working classes. That should be pretty clear to everyone.
http://destinationfiji.org
Campaign worth supporting, why holiday on others misery? “Voreqe” Bainimarama tries to put the guilts on previous Aussie and NZ sanctions and censure while instituting a clampdown on Fijian workers, why do those holidays seem so cheap again…
Plus while researching was reminded that Colonel Frank was trained by experts in military coups and repression having spent some time in 1979 on the Chilean torture ship Esmeralda, plus Fiji military and individuals profited from the US “attack on Iraq” as contractors and still receive United Nations funding. Stuff ’em, don’t go there.
TV3 News – now we know the price extracted by Scummy Dunney and paid by ShonKey Python for GCSB vote. Sorted UF membership figures – renewed ministerial warrant. $100K of funding thrown in. And that’s just for now. Cup of tea in 2014 ?
You’re asking why young people don’t respect ?
Sorry – correction – $100K happens on proving the membership – ministerial salary then. Piece of sanctimonious shit ! We’re not forgetting the silly old man skeleton-in-cupboard bizo though are we ? The cupboard ShonKey Python will open at will.
Thank God we’ve got Sir Kiwi Kim Dotcom with his yet unrevealed proof (audio and visual) of ShonKey Python knowing ALL about him WELL prior to the date he claimed, thus misleading Parliament.
Haere Ra………Aloha………overnight.
It’s good news in reality. Key will look a dork taking support from 2 discredited wallies-Dunne and Banks. Some of the public will pick up on this. Got to be worth 2/3 points off National’s polling at the election.
Seen this?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10911645
” Two large public transport organisations – Auckland Transport and KiwiRail – are holding inquiries into separate allegations of corruption over contracts.
Serious fraud investigators are waiting on findings from the inquiries before deciding whether to swoop.
Auckland Transport has put a senior manager in its road maintenance division on indefinite leave until it completes an internal investigation into what it says are “serious allegations relating to the potential misuse of public monies”.
KiwiRail has called in outside forensic accountants to make an independent review of infrastructure contracts after receiving what it says were anonymous allegations about them.
“There is no evidence of wrong-doing at this time and, as a result, we have not stood anyone down,” the state-owned rail operator’s chief executive, Jim Quinn said late yesterday in a statement to the Herald.
The Serious Fraud Office says it is aware of the two sets of investigations, and has spoken to both transport organisations.
Both had undertaken to contact the SFO if their investigations found evidence of possible fraud, a spokeswoman for the office said yesterday.
A spokesman for Auckland Mayor Len Brown said he knew of the council-controlled transport organisation’s investigation but had no comment to make about the allegations which prompted it.
Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee’s office referred Herald questions to State-Owned Enterprises Minister Tony Ryall, whose office referred the newspaper to KiwiRail.
Auckland Transport chief executive David Warburton said a senior manager had been placed on indefinite leave after a review of procurement procedures in its road corridor maintenance operations…”
______________________________________________________________
AUCKLAND TRANSPORT CONTRACTS:
http://www.aucklandtransport.govt.nz/about-us/ProcurementAndSuppliers/Awarded-Contracts/Documents/AwardedContracts.pdf
Check for yourselves how many contracts are made by ‘direct appointments’.
Check how many contracts are for ‘professional services’.
(‘Consultants’? )
Check how many contracts are going to member companies of the unelected, hugely powerful private business lobby group ‘the Committee for Auckland’:
http://www.committeeforauckland.co.nz/membership/member-organisations
______________________________________________________________________________
Want to stop this corrupt corporate control of the Auckland region?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10899523
“The will of the people is the basis of the authority of government.”
Who elected this unholy alliance of the New Zealand Property Council and the hugely powerful private lobby group the Committee for Auckland to effectively run our Auckland region “like a business, by business, for business”?
The mechanism for this corporate control of the Auckland region is through council-controlled organisations – run by boards of appointed business people and executive private-sector staff.
CCOs must go!
Key council officers effectively run Auckland Council as if it were their own private business.
I support citizens’ lawful rights to privacy, but transparency and accountability for those in public office. … ”
Penny Bright
2013 Auckland Mayoral candidate
Ironing much.
http://thinkprogress.org/sports/2013/08/12/2452621/olympic-committee-could-punish-athletes-for-speaking-out-against-russian-anti-gay-law/
6. Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement
http://www.olympic.org/Documents/olympic_charter_en.pdf